Account restricted to AQ. tokens after accidental key exposure on GitHub — requesting AIza key restoration

Gemini API
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1

Hello Google AI Developer Support Team,

I am writing to request restoration of my account’s ability
to generate standard AIza… format API keys in Google AI Studio.

Account email: [email protected]
Project number: 598655878…

Issue:
All API keys generated from my account now produce AQ. prefix
tokens instead of the standard AIza format. This affects all
projects including newly created ones.

Root cause I believe triggered this:
Approximately 2-3 weeks ago, I accidentally committed a Gemini
API key to a public GitHub repository ( GitHub - sandeep-kaki/AutoPulse · GitHub ).
I believe Google’s automated security scanner detected this and
restricted my account.

Actions I have already taken to secure my account:

  • Added config.properties to .gitignore immediately after discovery
  • Removed the exposed key from all config files
  • Stored the API key exclusively in GitHub Secrets (encrypted)
  • The codebase now reads the key only from environment variables,
    never from committed files
  • The old exposed key is no longer in use

Current impact:
The AQ. tokens generated by my account are not accepted by the
Gemini API via x-goog-api-key header or ?key= query parameter,
returning 401 UNAUTHENTICATED with reason ACCESS_TOKEN_TYPE_UNSUPPORTED.

Request:
Please review my account and restore the ability to generate
standard AIza… format API keys. I have fully secured my
development workflow and this will not happen again.

Thank you.

2

Hello @sandeep_kaki ,
We are moving away from Traffic keys (Alza) and towards a more secure Authentication Key (AQ). AI Studio will now only generate Authentication Key (AQ) keys. More information on key usage can be found in the Using Gemini API keys documentation.